Ticks (Ixodidae) from passerine birds in the Carpathian region

0376319 - BC 2013 RIV AT eng J - Journal Article
Spitalska, E. - Literák, I. - Sparagano, O. A .E. - Golovchenko, Maryna - Kocianová, E.
Ticks (Ixodidae) from passerine birds in the Carpathian region.
Wiener klinische Wochenschrift: the Middle European Journal of Medicine. Roč. 118, 23/24 (2006), 759-764. ISSN 0043-5325. E-ISSN 1613-7671
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60220518
Keywords : Passerine birds * Ixodes ricinus * Borrelia * Rickettsia * Ehrlichia * Carpathians
Subject RIV: EC - Immunology
Impact factor: 0.804, year: 2006

Birds have been found to be a reservoir host of borrelia.To assess the situation in Slovakia ticks were collected from a total of 3057 mist-netted, ringed and released passerine birds in two locations at 500 m (in 2001) and 1000 m (in 2003) above sea level in the Bukovske Vrchy Hills, part of the Carpathian region in the north-east of Slovakia. A total of 75 birds of 16 species were infested with subadult ticks of Ixodes ricinus species (prevalence of parasitization 2.5%). Sixty-two larvae from 31 birds of 9 species and 80 nymphs from 52 birds of 15 species were found. The highest intensity of parasitization was observed on blackbirds Turdus merula, song thrushes T. philomelos and dunnocks Prunella modularis. In ticks, the presence of Rickettsia sp., Coxiella burnetii, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato and members of the Anaplasmataceae and Piroplasmidae, were investigated by polymerase chain reaction, followed by sequence analysis.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0208753